TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday there is “no merit” to U.S. allegations that Canadian politicians are interfering in next month’s U.S. midterm elections, expressing disappointment with Washington’s ambassador over the accusations.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Turkey, Carney rejected a fact sheet issued Wednesday by the U.S. Embassy in Canada accusing Canadian politicians of seeking to influence American politics.
“The Canadian government brushes off concerns about potential interference in U.S. elections, even as its ministers and premiers openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances,” the embassy said.
Carney said Canadian diplomats were careful to avoid even the appearance of election interference and expressed disappointment with U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.
“There is no merit to these claims,” Carney said. “I’m disappointed that their envoy sees that as his role, to make these suggestions.”
The embassy singled out Industry Minister Mélanie Joly for discussing retaliatory tariffs targeting Republican states, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford for airing a U.S. advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Trump canceled trade talks with Canada after the ad aired during the World Series in October 2025.
The embassy also cited 11 Canadians charged with illegally voting in U.S. elections between 2012 and 2026, without linking the cases to Canada’s government. The Trump administration has made investigating noncitizen voting a priority, although election experts say such cases are rare.
Asked about the allegations, the State Department told The Associated Press: “The embassy fact sheet speaks for itself.”
McGill University political scientist Daniel Béland dismissed the embassy’s examples as evidence of foreign interference, saying the suggestion that Canada could significantly influence the U.S. midterm results was absurd. He warned that the allegations could lay the groundwork for blaming Canada if Republicans lose seats.
Hoekstra, a Trump ally and former Republican congressman from Michigan, recently warned Canadian politicians to keep their “nose out” of American politics, saying Washington was monitoring their activities and would respond to interference.
More than 280,000 people have signed a parliamentary petition seeking his removal, accusing him of normalizing Trump’s threats to annex Canada.
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro also warned Canada last month against interfering in the midterms.
“That game is up and if you interfere in our elections in Maine or Michigan, you will pay even more dearly,” Navarro said.
Carney suggested senior U.S. officials had themselves sought to influence Canadian politics. Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.
In January, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Alberta, where a separatist movement has sought independence, a “natural partner” for the United States.
“It’s just mindless noise,” Robert Bothwell, a Canadian historian, said. “Coming from an administration that plays footsie with separatists, it has less meaning than dogs barking in the night. All it expresses is the Trumpies’ hatred of Canada. Canada gets in their way, an obstacle to their hegemonic fantasies.”
Asked whether Canada could be blamed for Republican losses in the midterms and face additional tariffs, Carney said he did not expect that.
“There have been a very broad range of justifications for U.S. tariffs, and there’s almost an industry to create justifications for them,” he said.
Carney said Canada was ready to resume trade negotiations immediately if Washington was willing to negotiate in good faith, but would wait months or even until another U.S. administration if necessary to reach an acceptable agreement.
Asked whether a deal could be reached before the Nov. 3 midterms, Carney said, “It’s up to the United States. They’re a little hard to predict.”
“We don’t down tools because the United States is having elections,” he said.
Carney also said Trump was under no illusion about Canada’s sovereignty. “Canada will never be the 51st state,” he said. “We are going our own way.”
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Prime Minister Mark Carney sits on stage and listens during a joint news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Jordan Fisher was in middle school when he first heard it. He was at his first cast party, gathering with fellow performers around his drama teacher's piano after some community theater.
The song everyone was singing was about living life and measuring life, and there were a bunch of weird numbers — like 525,600. He wouldn't be the same after hearing it.
“I was like, ‘What is this?’” recalls Fisher. “That shifted things for me. I don’t think I’ll ever really be able to put a finger on it other than the fact that it was something that was supposed to happen.”
That song was, of course, the barn-burning Act 2 opener “Seasons of Love” from the landmark rock musical “Rent,” now celebrating its 30th anniversary of storming Broadway.
“'Rent' hit me. It just did,” says Fisher.
He's joining an astonishing list of Broadway's who's-who to celebrate the milestone Monday with a benefit performance of the show from the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Original cast members returning to their old roles include Tony-winner Idina Menzel, Tony-nominee Adam Pascal, Tony-nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tony-winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Fredi Walker, Taye Diggs and Anthony Rapp.
Other “Rent” alumni include Tony-winner Natalie Venetia Belcon, Tony-nominee Nicholas Christopher , Tracie Thoms, Jose Llana, Tony-nominee Ephraim Sykes and Tony-winner Aaron Tveit.
Some Broadway celebs scheduled to take part include Tony-winner Neil Patrick Harris, Rachel Zegler, Tony-winner Norbert Leo Butz, Tony-nominee Will Chase, Telly Leung and Christopher J. Hanke. Fisher jokingly calls it “'Rent'-cella,” after Coachella.
Seats have been snapped up, but $30 livestream tickets are available. The stream will be accessible for 24 hours following the performance and proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
“It’s rare that a show has a life like this and is still exciting and inspirational enough to have a 30th festival, if you will. It’s a really, really special thing,” says Fisher.
Jonathan Larson’s tale of free-spirited artists and street people in New York’s gritty drug- and AIDS-plagued East Village of the early 1990s was inspired by Puccini’s “La Boheme” and found a ready-made audience in young people, as it still does.
“He believed that going to musical theater didn’t just have to be an escape. It didn’t have to just be looking at phantoms and things that happened hundreds of years ago. It could be about the life we’re living right now,” says Rapp.
Rapp says it's appropriate that ticket sales will go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which has been offering meals, medication and healthcare to artists since the 1980s. “They can help make a difference to help people get direct aid and direct support in communities around the country.”
Rapp, who originated the role of the scarf-wearing Mark Cohen, was part of the workshop for the off-Broadway production and knew there was something special, if raw, in the fledgling show. “The soul of it was so powerfully there,” he recalls.
He also recalls hearing “Seasons of Love” — with its famous line “525,600 minutes/How do you measure a year in the life?” — for the first time when the cast, musical director Tim Weil and director Michael Greif gathered around a piano.
“I’ve never heard a song like it and certainly not in theater,” Rapp says. “We all leaned forward. Every single element of it was so etched deeply into my soul and my memory.”
He predicted the show might make a splash, but a smallish one: “I meant like the way that off-Broadway things over in the corner could make a bit of a splash and have some energy around it, but certainly never anticipated mainstream and never anticipated Broadway.”
Rapp sees the rock and defiant snarl from “Rent” in the DNA of such shows as “Hadestown,” “Spring Awakening,” “Next to Normal,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Hamilton.”
“When you break a dam open, water rushes through. It’s like that,” he says. “Now, there’s a whole new universe of shows that have followed in our footsteps because we broke down the dam that seemed unbreakable.”
“Rent” won Tony Awards for best musical, score and book and a Pulitzer Prize. It lasted on Broadway for 12 years and more than 5,000 performances, launching the careers of its young original cast.
There was a 2005 film version, multiple tours, an off-Broadway revival, international productions, a Hollywood Bowl concert and a live staging on Fox in 2019, which starred Fisher in Rapp's old role.
Larson never lived to see his triumph: He died at age 35 of an aortic aneurysm after its final off-Broadway dress rehearsal in January 1996.
“The torch has been passed and carried by so many incredible artists over the years,” says Rapp. “I think it would thrill Jonathan Larson so much to know that so many wonderful human beings came through and kept his work alive and that they want to come back and celebrate it.”
FILE - The cast of the film "Rent", front row from left, Adam Pascal, Rosario Dawson, second row from left, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms, Idina Menzel, and Taye Diggs, third row from left, Jesse Martin, and Anthony Rapp, pose for a photo on a film set in San Francisco on May 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
FILE - Jordan Fisher arrives at night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 2019. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Jordan Fisher attends the 7th annual Elsie Fest, Broadway's music festival on Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Anthony Rapp attends the 36th Annual PaleyFest "Star Trek: Discovery and The Twilight Zone" in Los Angeles on March 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - The cast of the film Rent, from left, Taye Diggs, Adam Pascal, Rosario Dawson, Jesse Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, and Tracie Thoms, pose for a on a film set in San Francisco on May 27, 2005. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
